A novice was trying to fix a broken lisp machine by turning the power off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing spoke sternly- "You can not fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong."
Knight turned the machine off and on.
The machine worked.
Within six months of launch, the Whitedust Portal will overtake the existing portals as the leading source of comprehensive, trusted and unbiased security information. This will be achieved through a dedicated approach to reporting security events as they happen. So far in our live period Whitedust have placed an un-mistakable and firm emphasis on fair, unbiased and above all honest news comment on up to the minute security issues - a strategy fundamental to Whitedust's own work ethic.
Sure, it was written in February - a mere 7 months ago - but cut them some slack. They're trying.
I work at a private K-12 school in the Baltimore area. We often order old parts from the NSA, since it's close by, they give them to us fairly cheaply, and they have nice stuff.
One time, we found a hard drive stuck in an old machine that wasn't supposed to have a hard drive. It wasn't empty.
Without looking at any of the data, we called our sales rep to let them know. There was a scary-looking (unmarked) van at our door in 45 minutes to pick it up.
If only we could all fix our mistakes so quickly...
And while we're at it, lets force everyone to become an automobile mechanic before they are allowed to have a drivers license. That way they would know enought to take care of their own cars.
The problem with your analogy is that people are required to be basically competent at driving before they are legally allowed to drive. Granted, people are capable of causing much more damage with cars than with computers on account of incompetence, but that doesn't mean we should disregard the danger altogether. Think of how much less spam/DDoS there would be if people were licensed.
We can't judge what people do on their own computers, but when they end up harming others, maybe we should.
Not to compare sending spam to vehicular manslaughter. It's your analogy... =)
Re:Same "in" longer?
on
DVD-Rs go 8x
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I'm guessing what you meant to say was that it takes about a minute longer than a CD to burn, but I don't know how that involves the words "same" or "in."
He means it takes just over a minute for the DVD writer to write 700 MB. 4.5 GB in 9 minutes means 700 MB in about 80 seconds, on average. Hell, if my 52x burner took 8 minutes to burn a CD, I would be pissed.
Maybe it isn't the same because part of the CDR-ROM is actually cut, but isn't this the same idea in principle as is behind multisession CDRs? Can't write over the part that's already written, but you can write on the rest of the disc.
The Polyphonic site says: Well, much of what attracts us to a particular song is found in the basic structure of the music. Particular rhythms, changes in key and certain HSS visualization of an album superimposed into the recent "hit universe" melodic patterns define the psychological and very human response we all have to music.
This seems to imply that the reaction to hit songs is universal. I'm not ashamed to say that I absolutely abhor most of the hit songs on the charts nowadays. Um, "we all have" this "very human response"? My response is to change the station (which rarely actually happens, since I almost always just listen to my MP3 CDs anyway). My point is, how can some software like this transcend people's individual tastes? I mean, sure, it wouldn't be hard to recycle some music to sell it wholesale to the masses, but it's pretentious at best to assume that some sort of program can accurately reflect my tastes at the same time as the average 12-year-old boy band fan.
I'm surprised nobody's compared this to good old Orson Scott Card. A game that makes itself up as you keep playing? Next thing you know, we'll have AI constructs self-perpetuating themselves over interplanetary networks...
In case there were any doubts from the title of the article, the Conclusion page says this: The King is dead! Long live the King! How's this for a plot-twist? The challenger Radeon - a real "Performeron" - has actually done it and usurped the throne from the former king! ATi has earned itself not only the performance crown in gaming environments, but also that of the technology leader!
Just two of the "Facts" that don't really make sense:
Fact: Health studies have found that even those casual gamers suffer from low self-esteem and self-pride compared to their athletic and more socially accepted peers in their same age group. Young gamers were found to be more likely to become lifetime gaming addicts and becoming social outcasts. How often are gamers (let's expand a bit and call them "nerds") compared to "their athletic and more socially accepted peers"? Did these people ever notice that there have always been nerds who are less athletic and less socially accepted, even before video games? Is it so surprising that these nerds turned to a different outlet? Just the fact that they think it's better to be athletic and "socially accepted" shows how skewed this site really is.
Fact: Hardcore gaming not only leads to videogame addiction and abrupt lifestyle changes, but to crime and felony as well. Hardcore gamers never buy computer videogames. Instead, downloading illegally copied videogames or "warez" is the only method acceptable by the underground. Buying a legit copy is grounds for abandonment by community groups. You may not be buying your child videogames, but they can illegally obtain them off the internet. I'm sure many of us at some point have download an illegal "warez" program at one time or other. Does that mean we don't buy games? No. Long ago I had a warez version of Half-Life, but then (shortly thereafter) when I realized how great a game it was, I bought it. It's just like any other piracy: not as big a deal as those industry execs make it out to be. And what is this "underground" they talk about that only accepts people with warez? The only underground I can think of (but maybe I'm wrong) is--surprise--the warez scene. In any case, if you're in a clan or something, nobody can tell if you're using a legal copy (just like, presumably, nobody can tell if everyone else is using an illegal copy). Completely spurious. Oh, and kids can get video games illegally? So can parents. What are you going to do, turn off the internet?
Scrolling down to the bottom of the page, it also makes that age-old claim of the link between violence in video games and real-world violence. I won't even get into that here, but it's interesting to note that even though they claim "new research" supports them, they don't actually say where this information comes from, or even what the so-called link is. There are some forthcoming articles that might address this. But they're not biased are they?
It seems to me any copy protection ever conceived (for audio at least) will be worthless. As long as you have a headphone jack or line out on your copy-protected-CD-reading stereo, you can plug that right into the line in of your sound card, and rip away.
If you go to computer stores like CompUSA where they give out free AOL discs, you can ask them for boxes they have in the back (that's hundreds at a time). Ought to get you to a million quicker.
I'm sure it's not that easy to map someone's genes, but hundreds of thousands of dollars? They'd better tell me what kind of cancer I'll get, and when, for that much.
The funny thing about DRM
on
"Squishy" DRM?
·
· Score: 1
No matter how much they try to bully us into not letting us copy music, as long as there are some systems (be they stereos or PCs) that will play the music, it can still be copied.
Your stereo has some sort of output (besides speakers), right? And your computer has some sort of line-in, right? Plug Wire A into Hole B, and presto.
Not that I'm a big fan of file sharing, but just as an excercise I was working on a Qt client for Scour. Oh well, maybe I'll find something else to do...
Slashdot Mirror
Wonder who Whitedust is? Read their mission statement:
Within six months of launch, the Whitedust Portal will overtake the existing portals as the leading source of comprehensive, trusted and unbiased security information. This will be achieved through a dedicated approach to reporting security events as they happen. So far in our live period Whitedust have placed an un-mistakable and firm emphasis on fair, unbiased and above all honest news comment on up to the minute security issues - a strategy fundamental to Whitedust's own work ethic.
Sure, it was written in February - a mere 7 months ago - but cut them some slack. They're trying.
I work at a private K-12 school in the Baltimore area. We often order old parts from the NSA, since it's close by, they give them to us fairly cheaply, and they have nice stuff.
One time, we found a hard drive stuck in an old machine that wasn't supposed to have a hard drive. It wasn't empty.
Without looking at any of the data, we called our sales rep to let them know. There was a scary-looking (unmarked) van at our door in 45 minutes to pick it up.
If only we could all fix our mistakes so quickly...
And while we're at it, lets force everyone to become an automobile mechanic before they are allowed to have a drivers license. That way they would know enought to take care of their own cars.
The problem with your analogy is that people are required to be basically competent at driving before they are legally allowed to drive. Granted, people are capable of causing much more damage with cars than with computers on account of incompetence, but that doesn't mean we should disregard the danger altogether. Think of how much less spam/DDoS there would be if people were licensed.
We can't judge what people do on their own computers, but when they end up harming others, maybe we should.
Not to compare sending spam to vehicular manslaughter. It's your analogy... =)
I'm guessing what you meant to say was that it takes about a minute longer than a CD to burn, but I don't know how that involves the words "same" or "in."
He means it takes just over a minute for the DVD writer to write 700 MB. 4.5 GB in 9 minutes means 700 MB in about 80 seconds, on average.
Hell, if my 52x burner took 8 minutes to burn a CD, I would be pissed.
...using their venerable Z-Machine...
So it can perform nuclear fusion...but can it play text adventures?
Obviously, the RIAA is alienating the biggest consumers of music by making them bankrupt.
Oh, wait, it's been doing that for years.
Maybe it isn't the same because part of the CDR-ROM is actually cut, but isn't this the same idea in principle as is behind multisession CDRs? Can't write over the part that's already written, but you can write on the rest of the disc.
--------------------
The Polyphonic site says:
Well, much of what attracts us to a particular song is found in the basic structure of the music. Particular rhythms, changes in key and certain
HSS visualization of an album superimposed into the recent "hit universe" melodic patterns define the psychological and very human response we all have to music.
This seems to imply that the reaction to hit songs is universal. I'm not ashamed to say that I absolutely abhor most of the hit songs on the charts nowadays. Um, "we all have" this "very human response"? My response is to change the station (which rarely actually happens, since I almost always just listen to my MP3 CDs anyway).
My point is, how can some software like this transcend people's individual tastes? I mean, sure, it wouldn't be hard to recycle some music to sell it wholesale to the masses, but it's pretentious at best to assume that some sort of program can accurately reflect my tastes at the same time as the average 12-year-old boy band fan.
--------------------
I'm surprised nobody's compared this to good old Orson Scott Card. A game that makes itself up as you keep playing? Next thing you know, we'll have AI constructs self-perpetuating themselves over interplanetary networks...
First I heard about this was on Tom's Hardware months ago:
ATi Radeon 9700 PRO - Pretender To The Throne
In case there were any doubts from the title of the article, the Conclusion page says this:
The King is dead! Long live the King! How's this for a plot-twist? The challenger Radeon - a real "Performeron" - has actually done it and usurped the throne from the former king! ATi has earned itself not only the performance crown in gaming environments, but also that of the technology leader!
Just two of the "Facts" that don't really make sense:
Fact: Health studies have found that even those casual gamers suffer from low self-esteem and self-pride compared to their athletic and more socially accepted peers in their same age group. Young gamers were found to be more likely to become lifetime gaming addicts and becoming
social outcasts.
How often are gamers (let's expand a bit and call them "nerds") compared to "their athletic and more socially accepted peers"? Did these people ever notice that there have always been nerds who are less athletic and less socially accepted, even before video games? Is it so surprising that these nerds turned to a different outlet? Just the fact that they think it's better to be athletic and "socially accepted" shows how skewed this site really is.
Fact: Hardcore gaming not only leads to videogame addiction and abrupt lifestyle changes, but to crime and felony as well. Hardcore gamers never buy computer videogames. Instead, downloading illegally copied videogames or "warez" is the only method acceptable by the underground. Buying a legit copy is grounds for abandonment by community groups. You may not be buying your child videogames, but they can illegally obtain them off the internet.
I'm sure many of us at some point have download an illegal "warez" program at one time or other. Does that mean we don't buy games? No. Long ago I had a warez version of Half-Life, but then (shortly thereafter) when I realized how great a game it was, I bought it. It's just like any other piracy: not as big a deal as those industry execs make it out to be. And what is this "underground" they talk about that only accepts people with warez? The only underground I can think of (but maybe I'm wrong) is--surprise--the warez scene. In any case, if you're in a clan or something, nobody can tell if you're using a legal copy (just like, presumably, nobody can tell if everyone else is using an illegal copy). Completely spurious. Oh, and kids can get video games illegally? So can parents. What are you going to do, turn off the internet?
Scrolling down to the bottom of the page, it also makes that age-old claim of the link between violence in video games and real-world violence. I won't even get into that here, but it's interesting to note that even though they claim "new research" supports them, they don't actually say where this information comes from, or even what the so-called link is. There are some forthcoming articles that might address this. But they're not biased are they?
It seems to me any copy protection ever conceived (for audio at least) will be worthless.
As long as you have a headphone jack or line out on your copy-protected-CD-reading stereo, you can plug that right into the line in of your sound card, and rip away.
If you go to computer stores like CompUSA where they give out free AOL discs, you can ask them for boxes they have in the back (that's hundreds at a time). Ought to get you to a million quicker.
I'm sure it's not that easy to map someone's genes, but hundreds of thousands of dollars? They'd better tell me what kind of cancer I'll get, and when, for that much.
No matter how much they try to bully us into not letting us copy music, as long as there are some systems (be they stereos or PCs) that will play the music, it can still be copied.
Your stereo has some sort of output (besides speakers), right?
And your computer has some sort of line-in, right?
Plug Wire A into Hole B, and presto.
Damn...and I thought I was the only one. We own.
Not that I'm a big fan of file sharing, but just as an excercise I was working on a Qt client for Scour. Oh well, maybe I'll find something else to do...